Boundaries
by WintryElf
Summary: Imagination only goes so far... YuiAzu.
1. Boundaries

Azusa kneeled on the floor of her bedroom, silky black hair spilling across her face and down her back. She picked up her red Mustang from its stand, and slinging the cold strap over her shoulders, she fumbled for a pick. She began to strum, playing anything that came to mind, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the beautiful feeling in her heart whenever she played on her guitar. To know that such beautiful sounds were coming from her efforts inspired such happiness in her, and she wished that she could keep this feeling forever. Fingers dancing across the frets, Azusa began a perfect rendition of Fuwa Fuwa Time, not playing a supporting part but the main chords played by her band- and club-mate, Hirasawa Yui. The joy inside of her intensified as the beautiful melody washed over her ears. Reaching the climax of the song, and strumming louder and faster, she could not resist opening her mouth and letting that feeling in her heart explode into the world with her voice.

_Aa Kami-sama, onegai, futari dake no_

_Dream-Time kudasai_

_Oki ni iri no usa-chan daite_

_Konya mo oyasumi_

Azusa's high, quiet, soulful voice echoed around the room as she coaxed the final few notes from the guitar. This was the side of her that she could never show to anyone, the side that was not visible during ordinary practice with her band-mates, which kept her afloat in her swamp of a life.

She understood how Yui felt.

She understood the radiant joy that washed over Yui's face during their practices while singing. The vibrant glow in her eyes. That glow was present constantly, like a drug that Yui couldn't stop injecting, that sent her into bliss. Sometimes this light, blissful life of hers got her into trouble, but she would always make it out unscathed.

Azusa was a fellow addict. But she was the responsible _kouhai,_ the closet druggie, and she could not let that side show around anyone. Not even her parents would see this blissful face of hers as another injection of joy hit her bloodstream and rocketed around her heart. Yui and Azusa had permanent suppliers of this drug called happiness.

Maybe that was what brought them closer together than with any of their other band-mates. Yui was always attached at the hip to Azusa, always wanting to snuggle her or play with her hair or hold her hand, and while Azusa mostly refused these advances, sometimes she lapsed into a playful state and let Yui do what she wanted to, and take Azusa where she wanted to, and they were happy in their togetherness and in their sharing of this passion.

Azusa sat back, panting after letting her heart open so wide, dropping all of her barriers, exposing herself to the world with her voice and her guitar.

She closed her eyes.

She pictured Yui sitting across from her, her brown, vibrant hair brushing her shoulders, her happy, relaxed face and her Gitah in her hands. She pictured Yui's nimble hands flying over the fretboard as they began strumming the chords to Fuwa Fuwa Time. And Yui came to life, in that room, right beside her. She looked at Azusa questioningly.

Azusa understood what this Yui wanted, and raised her Mustang. Together, they immediately began playing their own separate parts to the song, and Yui smiled at her, and she smiled back.

Yui's happy voice rang out through her bedroom, and the power of Azusa's imagination was so great that the sound was almost tangible. But Yui was accompanied by Azusa's soulful, piercing tones that created a perfect harmony, and she saw that Yui mirrored her expression of bliss as together, they played and sang the song that had ended their freshman year. This, Azusa thought, was the best feeling in the world.

_I love you, Yui. I'm in love with this intoxicating fire that burns in our veins, this passion, this happiness. I always want to be with you, and I never want this to end. Let's play forever, _she thought, looking shyly at the Yui she imagined, whose smile widened as she nodded in acceptance.

As excitement, bliss and pure happiness shot through her veins, Azusa slowly, reluctantly, raised the walls around her heart, put down her Mustang, and tied up her hair. As she opened the door and walked out into the air, she straightened out her school uniform and wondered how close she would get to Sakuragaoka before Yui went on a hunt for an Azu-nyan hug. Behind her, the imagined Yui slowly dissolved, but it was okay. Azusa would make her come back the next day, and they would play together once more, sharing their love.

As she drew closer to Sakuragaoka, she passed many small shops, a bakery, and a playground, with lots of little children running about happily, parents sitting off to the side engaged in merry conversation. Azusa smiled at the children; their carefree attitudes reminded her so much of the girl she loved.

She settled into the walls of her heart, her safeguard, her shield. They were supposed to be her protection against revealing her feelings... but Yui held the key.

_I wonder if she even knows that I can sing_, thought Azusa, as she caught a glimpse of a familiar head of brown hair in the distance.

"_Azu-nyan!_"

The impact of_ senpai_ upon _kouhai_ was nothing compared to the impact of Azusa's heart upon her chest.

Torment outweighed loss on the scales of her heart.


	2. Pressure

**A/N:** Slightly different style of writing here. I was writing to suit Yui, and not Azusa. I hope this shows, but isn't disconcerting. The outline is a little more updated now, and it looks much easier to continue this, but I'm not making any promises.

SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER...

"Yui, hurry up, it's time to get moving."

"Mou, Azunyan, why do you always know when I'm late...?" whined Yui with a pout at her kouhai, who was impatiently shifting from foot to foot.

"Because I'm late too! Gym! If you hurry they might have cake!" she cried, watching with amusement as Yui took off like a shot for her next period, which Azusa prayed in thanks for every day – it was the only way to exhaust Yui and subdue her infamous pounces. This backfired somewhat in that Yui, following one of these classes, chose simply to cling to Azusa and drag along behind her limply for the duration of what she had dubbed an "Azunyan Recharge", but it was the lesser of two evils.

Yui slipped into the changing room, stumbling over the doorstop characteristically as she made her way to a free space within the changing room. Disconcerted and saddened at the lack of cake, she stripped and began to change into her gym uniform. She listened to the whispered mutterings of gossip that characterized this area. Yui did not dislike her classmates – she did not dislike anyone, per se – but she found them hard to relate to, unlike her Azunyan, whom she both sorely missed despite their short absence from each other and was slightly irked at for tricking her into running to class.

"Did you hear?"

"They say she's one of _them._"

"Who is one of who?" asked Yui, standing on her toes, wobbling, in an attempt to see the speakers.

Nodoka turned around from her place slightly in front of Yui, between her and the speakers. She lowered her head to Yui's ear and spoke in an undertone: "Your friend, Kotobuki-san. I never got to talk with her much, but... anyway, they're saying that she..eto...likes _women._

"What's wrong with that? asked Yui audibly. "I like women too! You're a woman, Nodoka-chan!" Nodoka made a hushing motion, slightly red in the face, then added:

"She likes women in the way that normal girls, like you or I, like men."

"Oh! You mean like love?"

"Yes, Yui-chan. People won't say it to her face because of her talent as a musician and her influence financially, but they're trying not to talk to or make eye contact with her for fear that she might, you know.. like _them._

"But it's fine as long as they both love each other, right?" piped up Yui. Instantly, discussion within the room was silenced. Slowly, the other girls, each with a face twisted meanly, turned to face her.

"Eto... did I do something?" asked Yui, confused as to why she was receiving such awful stares.

Nodoka looked at her, opened her mouth as if to reassure her, took a sidelong look at the girls who were slowly forming a ring around Yui, and then shook her head and resumed folding her shirt, mouth shut tightly.

Confused and hurt, Yui left, receiving a buffet from a larger girl as she tried to squeeze through to the door.


End file.
